A brand campaign for India's top university
We started working with IIT Madras on "student perception" in 2021. As the years rolled by, one issue kept nagging us - Students seem to consider all the old IITs are similar. This is partly true - since they are sister institutes set up around the same time. At the same time, each has a different flavour. How can we stay within the old IIT perception and still build a unique positioning for IIT Madras? (Is it even possible?)
We came up with a bunch of ideas and tested each in 1:1 interviews. One candidate which did well was "IITM is a breath of fresh air" which was both literal (best air quality) and also metaphorical. But the campaign idea that did the best was to position IITM as "The Best Place to Build." We made a small 30-second ad and ran it, and the results were fabulous. In late 2024, we launched the Best Place to Build podcast as the first leg of a multi-year campaign.
The "Build campaign" runs alongside AskIITM, CoreVoice's other IIT Madras engagement. Check out the case study on AskIITM to learn how the two work together.
A long-form podcast
The centre piece of the Best Place to Build campaign is a podcast: long-form conversations with IIT Madras builders - professors, alumni, and incubatees - about the things they're building and the part the institute played in it. We chose this format because it allowed us to go into nuances, and also because it differentiated IIT Madras from the others to have a dedicated long-form high-quality podcast. From 2024-26, the podcast was shot at campus in the bowl of the Centre for Innovation maker-lab.
Guests have included founders of companies like Swiggy, Ather Energy, Medibuddy, Urban Ladder, Sarvam AI, Mindgrove, GalaxEye, Agnikul Cosmos, and many more, alongside professors such as Director Prof. V. Kamakoti, Prof. Ravindran, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, and Prof. Preeti Aghalayam, among others.
Need people to believe something about you, over time?
We've helped institutions build campaigns that compound: podcasts, directories, and content that keep making the same case, better, every year. Let's talk about what that could look like for you.